A comment on "The story of An Hour"
The plot of this story , focusing on a seemingly unusual death of Louise Mallard , can be divided into three parts . The first part lies in Richards's occasion access of the sudden accident news of Brently Mallard and his contrived revealing of the news to Louise with the help of latter's sister Josephine . Here, the author employs the devices of flashback at the very beginning of the story , foreshadowing the husband's return with the hint of the unnecessarily accurate "telegram" and a suspense of the wife's "grief of storm" .The second part is featured by the psychological wave of Louise , from instant grief to impulsive joy , from the unconscious repression to the clear knowledge of freedom right before the arrival of the crisis or climax of the whole story---the unexpected "survival" of Brently , indicated by his "latchkey" as it is also the crucial key to the one-hour story. Finally , the self-intoxicated wife is surprised to die from the sight of her husband . And flashback is used for the second time at the very ending : her death is not revealed until the doctor's diagnosis.For characters, Louise is the very heroine who dies coincidentally of heart trouble, but actually dies from a psychological contrast of daily mental
Trough Louise's ironic story of the short hour , the long-time underlined struggle , conflict and especially great pain from female values and voices can be penetrated hard . Both of them try to console the pitiable wife and prevent the news from endangering Louise's life . Finally , although Brently , the husband , does turn up towards the end of the story , he might be viewed as an off-stage character . So at the end of the story , ironically , it's her husband's "survival" that kills her ,which reflects a great situational irony to the readers. Although finally Louise opens the door for Josephine, no true human understanding and communication have been achieved other than the shocking death of the former and piercing cry of the latter . Those symbolic images , namely " open window", "patches of blue sky" , "delicious breath of rain" , and "elixir of life", all cast light on the ever-increasing repressed , inhibited family life and the unprecedented spiritual liberation. For them , it's "joy that kills" her . Finally, both Richards and Josephine play an indispensable role in leading the tragic death of the protagonist , even though they all try their best to avoid any terrible thing happened to her . while Richards and Josephine are being worried about that Louise will be die of grief because of the news of her husband's "death" , Louise feels the ever-have freedom coming to her and starts tasting the joy of it . This kind of sharp transformation of her intellectual experience has been a great irony against her later becoming the very victim of the institution of marriage and failed equal love . The greatness of this story , if any , should count on the a general theme about the implied struggle for "power will" between human beings , not limited to both genders ,which reminds readers of the contrastive images between "open window" and "close door" . As Louise mediates , she sometimes loves her husband while the husband should bear the dead facial expression .
Common topics in this essay:
Brently Mallard,
Trough Louise's,
Richards Josephine,
Finally Brently,
Josephine Richards,
Brently Richards,
Josephine Louise,
Louise Mallard,
Louise Josephine,
,
elixir life,
death louise,
inner world,
spiritual freedom,
family life,
richards josephine,
ironies story,
story ,
louise feels,
louise door,
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Acceptance Essays
